“Cat?”
“We’ll talk later.” When our lives aren’t on the line. “I’ll be waiting for you.” She peeked out the door, saw no one around and hurried down the short hall to the private room. Once inside, she locked the door and then...all she could do was wait.
Each minute felt like an hour. She strained her ears, trying to hear, but couldn’t distinguish the sounds of the party from possible conflict.
Was the senator, at this very moment, attacking Sahara? What if he’d sent one of his guards to shoot her without warning? Sahara absolutely could not take a bullet for her. Cat knew she couldn’t live with that.
She waffled, reaching for the doorknob then backing away again.
No, that wouldn’t happen. Not at the crowded party. Not with both Leese and Justice looking after her.
Regardless of what common sense told her, Cat continued to torture herself with what-ifs.
When she heard footsteps, she went limp with relief. Leese was okay. And it hadn’t really taken long at all. Probably only five minutes or so.
She smiled as the key sounded in the lock and the doorknob turned, a million questions at the ready.
The door opened—and there stood Tesh.
It took a split second for reality to crash into her expectations. No! She opened her mouth to scream and Tesh slapped her hard, propelling her into a wall. Dazed, she struggled to regain her footing, and his hand clamped over her mouth and nose.
Crushing her close, her back against his chest, he crooned, “Now, now, my kitten. None of that.”
Cat kicked and struggled. Her shoes flew off her feet, her elbow hit the wall...but no one heard.
No one came.
Tesh held her so tightly she thought her jaw might break. Blackness fogged the edges of her vision, and her limbs began to go weak. Fighting him did her no good. He dragged her out the door and down to another room, farther and farther away.
He had her and he wasn’t letting go. Cat knew she would die...and with her last cognizant thought, she prayed that at least Sahara, Justice and Leese would survive.
*
LEESE GROUND HIS teeth together.
The senator didn’t indict himself. In fact, the cowardly bastard spoke from a distance, one guard next to him inside the room, the other guard standing just outside the closed door.
“You’ve taken us all on quite the chase, but it’s time for you to quit these absurd games, stop being such a difficulty to so many and make your amends by going home.”
Keeping her back to him, her shoulders rounded in a show of defeat, Sahara nodded.
“I’m glad you’re finally coming to your senses.” His voice dropped. “You realize there’s nowhere you could have gone. That’s why you’re here now?”
Again Sahara nodded.
“And a show of deference? Of meekness?” The senator narrowed his eyes. “I suppose better late than never.”
When the guard smirked, Leese wanted to destroy him.
These were the people terrorizing Cat, chasing her, threatening her. He could gladly kill them with his bare hands. Having to hide, hearing Platt berate her, it took a herculean amount of effort to stick to the plan and wait.
“You and I will come to an agreement,” Platt promised without an ounce of sincerity. “But only if you go home tonight. Do you understand me?”
Hidden, Leese watched as Sahara ducked her head as if cowed. She didn’t face the senator, didn’t speak.
“Answer me, damn you!”
That tone pushed Sahara a little too far. Her shoulders slowly drew back and a new crispness entered her tone. “Will you promise not to hurt me?”
The senator was apparently too lost in his own power trip to realize it wasn’t Cat. “I won’t promise you anything.” Breathing harder, he demanded, “Be at Webb’s, tomorrow, one o’clock. That’s your last chance. Now do you understand me?”
Sahara sighed with frustration. “Not really, no. Care to spell it out?”
After a lengthy pause filled with electric rage, Platt muttered, “You’ve wasted enough of my time.” The door opened, and he said to the guard in the room, “Take care of her.”
Leese stiffened. Son of a bitch. That could mean anything from actually “help her” to “kill her.” He’d bet on the latter.
More than ready, Leese moved out of the shadows, inching up behind the man.
The guard was so bent on following orders, he never realized, even after getting face-to-face with her, that Sahara wasn’t Catalina.
The idiot reached for her, and Leese locked an arm around his neck in a rear naked choke, squeezing to cut off the blood flow from the guard’s heart to his brain.
It was an effective way for Leese to immobilize the bastard. It was a very different matter than the way Enoch had been choked, and worked as a temporary means for Leese to quietly get the upper hand.
While Leese tightened his hold, Sahara took advantage and nutted the guard, hard. A squeaky sound of pain escaped him before he passed out, going limp in Leese’s hold.
“Well,” Leese muttered, “that ought to teach him.”
Seething, Sahara said, “We need the senator to come back. Maybe if you hold the guard—”
“Fine by me,” Leese said, lowering the big man to the floor and relieving him of his weapons. “But I want Catalina out of here.”
“Justice can get her.” She withdrew the phone from her purse, gave Justice instructions and then knelt by Leese. “He’ll take her to one of the upstairs offices and stay with her behind a locked door.”
“No sign of Tesh?” Leese asked as he fastened the guard’s hands and feet with the nylon restraints he’d brought along in his suit pocket.
“He said not.”
Justice opened the door, looking a little confused. “You get her already?”
Sahara asked, “Who?”
A drumming of dread brought Leese upright.
“Cat,” Justice said, looking around and then drawing a breath of alarm. “Fuck. She’s not in the room.”
Leese strode across the floor. “She has to be. You checked the bathroom—”
“Yeah.” Justice followed on Leese’s heels. “The door was unlocked and open, and she’s not there.”
Running now, Leese surged up to the open bathroom door, and like a knife to the heart, he saw Cat’s discarded shoes, not set neatly on the floor, but flung, as if she’d been kicking.
“Listen to me,” Sahara said from behind him. “It’s going to be okay.”
But even Sahara didn’t sound convinced.
“We’ll find her, I promise. But first—”
“How?” Leese demanded. For him, there was no other first. He looked toward the boardroom where he’d cuffed the guard, and his eyes narrowed. If necessary, he’d beat the bastard to death to get the answers he needed. He started forward.
Sahara got in his way. “We have to talk to the guard. Talk, Leese. If it was Tesh—”
“You know it was.” Leese easily lifted her and set her aside.
Justice, ever protective of his boss, said, “Umm,” his loyalties divided.